Willy Wonka with a Girly Twist, by A Charming Fête

Party Recap

We (A Charming Fête) put together a Willy Wonka-themed 1st birthday party for my daughter Camille. There were tons of DIY details from giant mushrooms to candy centerpieces to a hand painted Oompa Loompa photo-op and Blueberry Girl game. This was truly a labor of love. The party was directly inspired from the original movie from the 70s but with a modern, girly spin. I knew I wanted the party to be bright with amazing color and most of all FUN! Here are some more details about the party:
There were 4 main tables/stations:
1. Camille’s Candy Shoppe: I painted the white and pink stripe backdrop and created the garland banner using a Willy Wonka font (which was also used throughout on all labels and signage). The large lollipops were created from cardboard candy drop cutouts found online (Shindigz). We attached them to cardboard wrapping paper rolls covered in white tissue paper to form the lollipops. We wrapped the sticks in pink/purple ribbon, also used throughout. We used lots of unique glassware filled with bright, whimsical candy to create an interesting and fun display. I made almost all of the baked goods on the table including cake pops, dipped marshmallows, cupcake poppers (kind of like a whoopie pie but made by skimming the tops off of mini cupcakes and sandwiching them together), fruity pebble rice krispy treats (aka Oompa Loompa bites). The photos speak louder than words!!
2. The Wonka Table: I wanted to include a vintage movie poster from the original Willy Wonka film. I used several sheets of blue, laser cut swirly paper (found at Michael’s) to create the backboard. This table was inspired by all of the original characters and included Veruca Salt’s Golden Goose, Violet’s Blueberry Juice, and more! I created the mini mushrooms by covering plastic cups and Styrofoam semi-circles with felt. These were super easy and turned out so cute! I also created a candy “tree” using multi color cupcake wrappers and added some Wonka sugar cookies to the table as well.
3. Fizzy Lifting Drink Station: I created the banner garland and tissue poms (inspired by Martha). There were lots of fun details on this table, Fizzy Lifting Bubbles, Wonka Vision Glasses and bags full of pink and purple marshmallow-coated popcorn (super easy to make and delicious)!
4. Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Fountain: I definitely knew we HAD to rent a chocolate fountain. We put the fountain in the center of a table covered with grass mats, mini mushrooms and lollipops (to make it look like the actual chocolate factory). We had lots of dippers from brownie bites and strawberries to gummy bears and angel foodcake.

Other games and party décor: games included an “Everlasting Gobstopper Ball Pit”, “Violet’s Cupcake Toss” and an Oompa Loompa photo op (the latter 2 constructed of cardboard, paint and a sharpie marker!). We covered Violet in blue balloons (aka blueberries) and put a white gumball in her mouth. I also created giant mushroom made from cardboard and covered in fabric and felt circles for some cool décor. We had an adorable Camille’s Chocolate Factory cake, decorated with grass, fondant top hats and mushrooms. My husband dressed up as Willy Wonka (what a guy!) ?
I made the candy centerpieces using glass sundae and soda vessels. I filled them with bright candy and used covered Styrofoam half-circles with different types of candy. Each one had a lollipop straw and a “Wonka Soda” flag. I also bought some giant gummy bears online and created marshmallow skewers and placed them in cylinder vases (of course the giant gummy bears were a play on the chocolate factory scene from the original movie)
Invitations: We sent out actual chocolate bars wrapped in a Wonka Bar wrapper. Each invite had a golden ticket. I found these on Etsy and they were absolutely perfect.

Hi :) Thanks!!! I got the movie poster from allposters.com. I made the Wonka bars using photoshop and an image found on the web. I just wrapped some cardboard in tin foil and blew up the wrapper image.

Feb 02, 2012

Brenda M
wrote:

Congrats! Your decoration is... SO SWEET!
I love it

Feb 03, 2012

Melissa H
wrote:

Hi Lisa -
How did you make your faux mushrooms? I'm having a hard time creatively coming up with a way to make those, totally stuck ... Thanks for any help!!

Sep 24, 2012

Lisa C
wrote:

Hi Melissa, this was actually an easy project! What I did was get some different color fabric. I got a nude fabric for the stems and inexpensive bright fabric and felt for the tops. I took a standard sized plastic cup and used a hot glue gun to cover the cup. I flipped it upside down and this became the stem. Then I got some round styrofoam balls from the craft store and cut them in half with a knife. I covered the top half-circle in bright fabric and them added some smaller round circle fabric pieces for the spots then just glued the top piece to the stem with a dab of hot glue!